Tragic Heros and When to Find Them
by moseekee
Summary: When the niffler steals a time turner and sends Newt Scamander back to ancient Thebes, he knows he'll have to right some wrongs.


If one were to ask Newt Scamander, he would say he lived a fairly normal life. In actuality, his life wasn't even as normal as most wizards' lives were. Newt was the only wizard that carried around a case full of magical creatures, and those magical creatures were the only magical creatures he knew that liked to cause trouble. He would admit that even he needed a break sometimes, which is exactly what he was supposed to be doing now. A few days ago he decided he needed to escape the limelight for a little while and go somewhere nice and relaxing, somewhere like Greece. So, he added non magical clothes to his case and was on his way. Of course, being Newt Scamander tended to attract problems and all of a sudden, his vacation was a lot more stressful than it was supposed to be.

Inside of Newt's case of magical creatures lived the niffler. Any muggle who saw it would have thought it was some type of platypus or beaver. They would've been wrong, for the niffler is a lot more dangerous than the common beaver. Even though it was practically harmless, it had a knack for stealing shiny objects. Its current fascination was a time turner. Time turners were not an object to be stolen. If the niffler was a wizard and not an animal, it would have known that a couple spins of a time tuner would send you barreling back in time. But, since it was just a niffler, it had to get his paws on the time turner. It stealthily opened the case and rushed after the shiny object which was dangling from a man's pocket. It wasn't until it had grabbed it that Newt realized something was going on.

As Newt looked down he saw a small opening in his case. "The niffler," he muttered to himself as he shut it. Looking around, Newt laid eyes on the small beast. Then, he looked around to see if anyone was watching them. Of course, as chance would have it, he was surrounded by people with curious eyes, not letting him pull out his wand. "Come here," he demanded, but the niffler took off down an alleyway. Newt ran after it, and eventually, it got tired. Newt caught up and plucked him from the ground. "Now where did you get this," he said, reaching toward the time turner. Even though Newt was a wizard, the niffler managed to pull the time turner away just in time. It was fascinated by the hour glass in the middle, and felt compelled to give it a spin. Newt saw, of course, and tried to stop it, but it was too late. The niffler activated the time traveling device and off they went. Newt didn't know when they would end up, but he knew when they did, he planned to grab the time turner away before anything else happened.

When they arrived, Newt looked around, about to grab the time turner. He was expecting for them to just go a couple hours in the past, but judging by the palace in the distance, they went a few thousand years back. He didn't know if it was shock or anger or a little bit of both, but for whatever reason, he dropped the niffler and it took off running toward the castle. "No!" Newt yelled, but as one would have guessed, the niffler didn't listen. Newt sighed, and went after it. He was distraught, and all he really wanted was to go back to his present time, but he couldn't leave the niffler.

As he got closer and closer to the palace, he felt more and more out of place. He was wearing a bright blue coat and had strawberry blonde hair, but everyone around him was bald and in togas. He knew that if he didn't catch up to the niffler soon, he was eventually going to get caught. It seemed to him that eventually meant right after he had the thought, because a man was calling out to him. "You! One of you doesn't belong, come closer to me."

Newt was nervous, but not worried, for as he got closer, he discovered the man was blind. Yet, for some reason Newt felt like the man could see everything. "Hello, Sir," Newt said, and immediately wished he had kept going, as the man seemed to be staring straight into him. "So you're the one, the British outsider. I've been waiting for you to show, outsider," the man said, "My name is Tiresias, and yours is?"

Newt swallowed, he wasn't the best with people, and this Tiresias had called him an outsider. "Newt Scamander, nice to meet you. Normally I would ask about what you mean when you say you've been waiting for me, but I'm in a bit of a rush," he replied, talking fast as he slowly started to drift away. He didn't want to get side tracked from his search.

Tiresias grabbed his arm before he had the chance to bolt. "I think you'll want to hear what I have to say. You need to leave. Your coming should not have happened, yet a few nights ago I saw you. You were here, before here, and not quite here all at the same time. Thebes is far safer without you, I warn."

Newt was better with animals than he was with people, but he also was smart, and he knew this man could do something many others couldn't. If Tiresias was a wizard he may have studied in some form of divination, which was using magic to help see the future. Yet, if Tiresias was a muggle, a non-magical person, it opened up a new realm of possibilities. He was most likely a Seer, but Newt couldn't remember much about them either. Lost in thought, Newt almost didn't see the niffler run into the palace. Its fat little body carried it through a window, and Newt saw the gleam of the time turner around its neck.

"I'm really sorry Tyrannosaurus, but I have to go. I have some business to attend to," Newt said and sprinted away. As he was running he heard faint yelling from behind.

"Tiresias! My name is Tiresias!" the Seer yelled.

'Oops,' Newt thought, but he didn't let the yelling slow him down. He knew he had three things to do while he was here in Thebes. Number one was grab the Niffler, number two was not get caught, and number three was live to tell the tale. So far he already broke one of the rules, so now he had to be extra cautious, because Newt happened to be fond of his life.

As he approached the palace, he heard something going on inside. He quietly opened the door and snuck in. He cast a quick invisibility charm on himself and ventured onward. He passed two guards carrying what looked to be a dead woman, and he frowned. Something was wrong here and he wasn't sure what. He saw a man sitting and holding onto his head and a brooch. He looked as though he was going to stab himself in the eye. There was something about him that screamed leader, and instantly Newt knew that he was the king. On a normal occasion, Newt would have tried to stay low-key, but going back in time to ancient Thebes wasn't a normal occasion, and he undid his invisibility spell.

"Excuse me, my name's Newt, and one of my pets happens to be somewhere inside this castle," he said, faking the most confidence he could.

The king looked up. "Let it destroy the place, there is nothing in here worth seeing, not anymore," the king said in despair. Newt stood up a little straighter. He knew a way to convince him to help him find the niffler.

Hiding his smile of pride, Newt said, "What's wrong?" Those two simple words can make someone spill there entire life story if they are asked in the right moment, and this, Newt knew, was the right moment.

"My entire life is wrong. I always believed my name was Oedipus, my parents lived in Corinth, I killed a man, and I married the Queen of Thebes to become their king. I have learned that my name is Oedipus, my parents are the ex-king and queen of Thebes, I killed my father, and I married my mother to become king. I cannot stand to look at anything anymore, for I hadn't seen what was right in front of me and now my mother and wife are dead." the king said. Newt was shocked. He knew that Oedipus had some kind of wrong doing happen to him, but he never would have expected it to come from his own hands. He also never would have expected it to be something this large, king or not. But, Newt had to get the niffler back somehow. Newt had a plan, and he wasn't going to let an obstacle like that stop him.

"Listen, maybe you should sit down," Newt had to explain without revealing too much about the wizard community, "I am a wizard, as crazy as it sounds. My pet is carrying a device that allows one to go back in time. If you help me find it, we can go back in time and stop you from killing your father."

"Then none of this would have ever happened! Together we will go and find this creature and its magical object," Oedipus exclaimed.

"Well, I mean it's not his magical object," Newt trailed off. He decided it would be best to stop talking while the king was still his ally. If Tiresias were to find them, he would probably tell the king about what he saw.

Quickly, Newt and Oedipus began their quest for the niffler. Newt was an excellent finder, and Oedipus was exceptionally brave, so they didn't have much difficulty. After searching through different nooks and crannies, they finally found the niffler covered in gold coins. "Is this your pet?" Oedipus asked grabbing the niffler by the feet while it was distracted by all the gold.

"It is," Newt responded. He quickly grabbed a sack and casted an enlargement spell on it. He then grabbed the niffler from Oedipus and put him in the sack. "I'll give him a stern talking to when I return home," he said, sticking his hand into the sack and yanking out the time turner. "Here it is," he said, drawing Oedipus closer. "Just hold on to me and tell me when you want to go."

Once Oedipus told him the exact time and date of when he killed his father, they traveled through time. Newt was getting tired of all the time travel, so he hoped Oedipus had a good plan so they didn't have to do it again. Newt discovered, when they arrived, that Oedipus was also exceptionally good at remembering things, for they arrived right as the past Oedipus was drawing his sword. "Quickly now, you only have one chance," Newt whispered to Oedipus who was staring in shock. That seemed to remind him of why they were there and he ran out of the bushes with his sword out.

"Stop! I request a duel instead," Oedipus yelled to past Oedipus. The past Oedipus looked shocked at seeing himself standing before him, and Newt admitted that he would have done things the exact same way. In the confusion of the moment, Newt watched as Oedipus's father ran away. Oedipus also noticed this, and ran toward Newt. When he reached him, Newt grabbed onto his arm and for the third time that day, went through time.

A lot of things happened that day that Newt hadn't expected. One of the most shocking was when Newt arrived back in Thebes to return Oedipus home and Oedipus not being there. Newt was still in the palace and he still had the niffler and the time tuner, but something about the palace seemed different than before. "Who goes there?" a woman's voice asked. Newt quickly casted his invisibility spell. Then, before his eyes, he saw the dead woman he had seen earlier in the morning, but alive and well. He knew they had messed something up when they stopped past Oedipus, so to fix it he just had to find Oedipus. He left the woman and went through the hallways looking for clues. As he turned the corner, he ran straight into Tiresias.

"Ah, if my eyes don't deceive me, I believe it's the outsider. I've been waiting for you," Tiresias said with a smile. "My eyes see more than eyes that see."

Newt backed up from him. "Can you tell me where Oedipus is? I know you know, for you know all." Newt said bravely. He hadn't been very brave lately, but in this situation he had to be. He can't just leave the past messed up, no matter how much he wanted to, because who knew how it would affect the future.

"I've spoken to you before, though not here. It was in another here, a here that doesn't exist because you didn't heed my warning. Oedipus is in the dungeons for trying to kill King Laius. You where there for his attempt, you should be aware," Tiresias said. Newt felt like screaming. He didn't realize how he didn't see it before. The blind man saw it before he did.

"Thank you," Newt said, heading toward the dungeons. He was running over what must have happened in his head. When they went back, the original king, Oedipus's father, survived, so he was able to tell everyone about who tried killing him. The past Oedipus was the one who was captured, so the Oedipus Newt had met didn't exist anymore, because he was overwritten. When Newt made it down to the dungeons, he cast an unlocking spell on the cell Oedipus was in and entered.

"Who are you? What do you want?" Oedipus said. Newt sighed. Oedipus was looking a lot worse for wear than he did when he knew the truth.

"My name's Newt. We've met before, though you don't remember. I'm a wizard. I went back in time with you to stop you from killing the king, if that makes any sense. It messed up the future that I had visited. Before we stopped you, you were king," Newt said, making sure to leave out that in the future he visited Oedipus was about to gouge his eyes out.

"Actually," Oedipus spoke, "I do remember you. I remember you and an older looking me stopping me from killing that man who just happened to be the king in disguise. It's because of you that I'm in here."

"But I can get you out," Newt said. "We just have to go back in time and stop you from stopping yourself." Newt was quite aware of how strange what he was saying sounded. Newt wouldn't have believed him if he was in Oedipus's place, but it seemed Oedipus wanted to get out of jail no matter what it took.

"Well let's go," Oedipus said, holding out his hand. Newt grabbed it and spun the time tuner, and here he was again, in the space between the past, the present, and the future.

The second they arrived Oedipus stood waiting for the original Oedipus. Once the other Newt and the original Oedipus arrived, he tackled them. "Stop! You need to let it go. This has to happen." Oedipus said. The other Newt made eye contact with Newt and they both looked away. Neither one liked the outcome of the situation, but they both knew that fate had brought them there.

The original Oedipus was yelling about his tragic life. Newt couldn't bear to listen, and instead watched as the king and past Oedipus arrived. Only Newt noticed them, as he wasn't involved in the commotion on the ground. He watched as past Oedipus killed the guards, and then raised his sword to the king. Newt looked away.

"No!" the original Oedipus yelled.

"Yes!" Oedipus shouted.

Newt turned around and frowned. Then he sent a small smile toward Oedipus. They managed to fix what was wronged, even if Oedipus won't be entirely happy about it. "Ready to go home?" he asked.

Newt knew that once he returned to present day Greece he would never time travel again. He and Oedipus arrived back in ancient Thebes, and when Newt looked to Oedipus, he knew he was done here.

Oedipus also looked to Newt and spoke, "Do you think I would have been happier in jail not knowing the truth?"

Newt looked down, a habit he got from when people at school would ask him uncomfortable questions about why he always carried around a case. "Well," Newt started, "I saw you in jail, and you were just as bad then as you are now. I think that you have to know the truth, no matter how bad it can be. There are many problems you have faced as a king, and if none of them were solved by taking out your eyes, then this one shouldn't be either. You may be having a tough time right now, with your wife and mom being the same person and your daughters also being your sisters, but that doesn't mean that things can't get better. Trust me; you're going to want to see them when they do. Goodbye King Oedipus."

"Goodbye Newt Scamander. Hope to see you soon," Oedipus replied.

As Newt went through time the final time in his life, he held on tight to the bag with the niffler. When he arrived home, he had a list of things he needed to do. Number one was getting a better, unescapable, case. The second was making sure his mother actually gave birth to him so he doesn't end up married to his real mom. The third was finding a better place to vacation than Greece.

If you were to ask anyone about Newt Scamander's life, they would say it was anything but normal. Most wizards don't carry around a case full of magical creatures that escape and stir up trouble. Most wizards don't time travel six times a day and live to tell the tale. Yet, Newt Scamander does, and Newt Scamander did, so if you were to ask Newt Scamander about his life, he would simply say that it was a fairly normal life to be living.


End file.
